comic book film

It’s becoming increasingly clear that Superhero films can go one of two ways: The first option is a pure tentpole flick that will cater to the broadest audience possible with the already established and recognizable brands the likes of Spiderman, X-Men and the Avengers (for Marvel) and Superman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League for DC Comics. The second option is more niche, a little darker and much more adult. This was a trend that started roughly when R-Rated hits “The Crow” ($50.7 million), “Spawn” ($87.8 million) and “Sin City” ($158.8 million) proved such films could garner ticket sales. Columbia Pictures then turned “Hellboy” into a hit, and recent underground comics like last year’s “Ant-Man” and “Guardians of the Galaxy”, and of course this year’s super smash “Deadpool”.

I already wrote at length about how awesome the “Guardians of the Galaxy” soundtrack was, and how Director James Gunn oversaw the curation of a soundtrack essentially as a love letter to 70’s pop, rock and disco. It seems the marketing team for “Suicide Squad” wanted to glom onto such associations with their placement of “The Ballroom Blitz” into the tail end of their recent trailer (watch above). No, I’m not talking about the less-than-stellar Tia Carrere cover that was shoe-horned into an otherwise solid “Wayne’s World” soundtrack. I’m talking about the guilty pleasure hit by the English glam-rock band “Sweet” from 1974.

This song would essentially accompany a raucous high school or college party in it’s day, but also sounds like it could’ve been included in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” soundtrack as well. Even the vocal performance by lead singer Chris Wright evokes pure horror-film schlock (or at the very least Billy Squier). The inclusion of such a track in the trailer tells me they’re aiming for Baby Boomer and Gen-X comic-book nerds and I’m curious if the film will cherry-pick some other 70’s era hidden gems? Rest assured I’ll be paying attention.